Digital Transformation Trends and Gifted Education

Tech Tools for the 2023 Classroom

Disclaimer regarding this week’s chat: All resources listed during this blog post are for informational purposes only and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations.

Strategies for integrating tech to increase student engagement are numerous including submitting writing assignments as blogs with a comment section, as well as podcasts or videos. Integrating tech can also include using Skype and Zoom to connect with peers via distant classrooms, hosting guest lecturers, and virtual field trips. Additional strategies to increase student engagement are using gamification with awards and badges, infographics, attendance via interactive whiteboards, and virtual reality tools.

Integrating technology can strengthen social-emotional learning skills which can lead to improved relevant skills such as persistence, practicing, empathy, problem-solving, and overcoming failure. Tech use in the classroom can result in more authentic learning where students are empowered to express themselves in new and meaningful ways leading to increased emotional intelligence. Some tools which can be used to integrate SEL include Microsoft Teams for reflection or Canva for Education with built-in customizable templates for SEL activities.

What are some benefits of digital sketchnoting? Digital sketchnoting merges sketchnoting skills with digital note-taking and boosts student comprehension and retention. Engaging in visual note-taking, students visually capture ideas, are prompted to organize thoughts visually, and develop creative digital literacy knowledge. Digital sketchnoting “allows students to respond to complex new ideas by engaging multiple parts of the brain simultaneously to deepen learning and retention (Gohir, 2021)”.

Knowledge construction is crucial to successful learning and student engagement is increased when students use digital tools to create and share what they learn. Tech tools can be used to make instruction conducive to knowledge construction using metacognitive strategies. Some popular tech tools include Flip (formerly, Flipgrid), MindMaps (app), Threadit, LucidChart, IdeaBoardz, and Circly (app).

What are some of your favorite tech tools? Google tools include Arts & Culture, Tours, Practice Sets, Applied Digital Skills, Voyager, and Experiments. Google Sheets can now be used to create interactive timelines for use across the curriculum. Tech tools for creating digital content include Loom, WeVideo, Canva, Creator Studio, and Adobe Express which offers templates as well as image and video editing. Other tech tools include Classroom Screen, Scribe, One Tab, Screen Pal, Nearpod, Peardeck, and Wakelet.

A transcript of this chat can be found at Wakelet.

Global #gtchat Powered by the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented is a weekly chat on Twitter. Join us Thursdays at 8E/7C/6M/5P in the U.S. and Fridays at 1AM GMT to discuss current topics in the gifted community and meet experts in the field. Transcripts of our weekly chats can be found at Wakelet. Our Facebook Page provides information on the chat and news and information regarding the gifted community.

About the author: Lisa Conrad is the Moderator of Global #gtchat Powered by TAGT and Social Media Manager of the Global #gtchat Community. She is a longtime advocate for gifted children and also blogs at Gifted Parenting Support. Lisa can be contacted at: gtchatmod@gmail.com

Resources:

How to Increase Student Engagement With Technology

How Education Technology In The Classroom Can Impact Student Learning

Digital Experiential Learning: 7 Steps to Transform Ordinary Classroom Activities

Consider These Technology Resources for Social-Emotional Learning

EdTech and Social-Emotional Learning | Eduporium

Best Free Social-Emotional Learning Sites and Apps

Get Students Creating with Digital Sketchnoting | ISTE

Digital Sketchnotes 101 (SlideShare)

An Introduction to Sketchnoting with Jen Giffen | The Noun Project

21 Free Tech Tools for Knowledge Construction

21 Ways to Construct Knowledge

What is Knowledge Construction

Top 19 New Technology Trends for 2022 – 2023

Top 10 Tech Tools for 2023

12 Ideas to Try in 2023 | Getting Smart

How—and Why—to Introduce Visual Note-Taking to Your Students | Edutopia

The Four-Component Instructional Design Model (pdf)

7 Emerging Technologies That Will Reshape Education in 2022

Top 8 digital transformation trends in education

Examples Of New Technology In Education

Cybraryman’s Technology Page

Graphic courtesy of Lisa Conrad

Virtual Reality and GT Education

This week, #gtchat welcomed Ryan and Fallon McLaughlin as our guests to chat about Virtual Reality and its potential use in gifted education. Ryan is a veteran teacher and currently the Curriculum Specialist for Prisms of Reality, a company pioneering a brand new paradigm for math education via virtual reality. Fallon currently works as the Executive Assistant for Optima Domi, a virtual instruction provider focused on classical curriculum delivered in virtual reality.

Virtual Reality – creating a simulated environment; either artificial or no longer in existence – has a myriad of benefits for GT students. Virtual Reality can give GT students the freedom of self-directed learning; learn at their own pace; and to take risks in a safe environment. It can spark creativity, enhance imagination, and facilitate language learning. GT students through Virtual Reality can connect with intellectual peers, mentors and experts in their area of study. It can accelerate understanding of complex subjects through experiential learning.

By integrating VR into existing curriculum, teachers can enhance the benefits of learning through experience. The most fundamental aspect of creating a successful outcome for students is to develop a well-structured plan. Curriculum integration should take into consideration that the teacher is more of a facilitator of learning; an integral part of good practices in gifted education. VR is another tool in a teacher’s toolbox. VR is an immersive pedagogy. Curriculum development can be costly and time-consuming, but there are beginning to be many new resources available (course content) online.

In the not too distant past, VR was considered too expensive; but that is changing. There are two ways to access it via individual headsets and the immersive classroom experience. Think ‘holodeck’ from Star Trek. VR headsets require minimal equipment (less cost) and space in the classroom. They are most impactful with secondary students who have the skills to better use the technology and appreciate the vivid sense of immersion. Immersive classrooms are more suitable at the elementary level as it allows for more supervision and interaction between students. Images are projected onto classroom walls which younger students may find more enjoyable.

Challenges to implementing VR in classrooms seem to be diminishing by the month. Progress has been made in improving the technology, reducing residual effects of motion sensitivity, and increasing awareness of the benefits of VR. As with any new tech, buy in can be consequential. Teachers exhausted from the demands resulting from the pandemic may be resistant to adopting yet another tech tool. This can be helped with PD for VR. Challenges still to be met include development of more content, financial concerns for providing every student access, and improving the tech to diminish cyber-sickness (similar to motion sickness).

The opportunities to use VR outside the traditional classroom seem limitless; especially for GT students. It can be used to conduct research while connecting with mentors and experts in the field. VR can be used to improve social emotional skills for GT students who can connect with intellectual peers, attend relevant academic conferences and lectures on a global level, and even for educational entertainment. For students isolated due to physical limitations or geographic considerations, VR can provide a way to access educational opportunities not heretofore available to them.

Virtual field trips are where VR can really shine and can be a very tangible way to stretch tight school and student budgets. VR reduces expenses, expands potential destinations, transcends time, and increases accessibility. Virtual field trips via headsets can provide acceleration opportunities for GT students to explore personal educational passions. They can increase student engagement and improve retention for all students.

A transcript of this chat may be found at Wakelet.

Global #gtchat Powered by the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented is a weekly chat on Twitter. Join us Thursdays at 8E/7C/6M/5P in the U.S. and Fridays at 1PM NZDT/10AM AEST/1AM UK to discuss current topics in the gifted community and meet experts in the field. Transcripts of our weekly chats can be found at Wakelet. Our Facebook Page provides information on the chat and news and information regarding the gifted community. Also, checkout our Pinterest Page and Playlist on YouTube.

Resources:

VR for Education

Virtual Reality in Education – What’s the Buzz?

VR in Education – Immersive Pedagogy and the Five Pillars of Success

VR in Education – Listening to Student and Teacher Feedback

Virtual Reality For Education in 2021

The Future of VR & AR in Education | Getting Smart

Virtual Reality in Education: Achievements and Challenges

Virtual Reality in Education: A Tool for Learning in the Experience Age |International Journal of Innovation in Education

Assessing the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Technology as part of an Authentic Learning Environment (pdf)

Virtual Reality and Social and Emotional Learning

Augmented Virtual Reality: How to Improve Education Systems (pdf)

Immersed in the Future: A Roadmap of Existing and Emerging Technologies for Career Exploration

Effects of an Immersive Virtual Reality-based Classroom on Students’ Learning Performance in Science Lessons | British Journal of Educational Technology

Reasons to Use Virtual Reality in Education and Training Courses and a Model to Determine When to Use Virtual Reality

Digital Transformations of Classrooms in Virtual Reality (pdf)

Effects of Applying a VR‐based Two‐tier Test Strategy to Promote Elementary Students’ Learning Performance in a Geology Class | British Journal of Educational Technology

Immersive Virtual Field Trips in Education: A Mixed‐methods Study on Elementary Students’ Presence and Perceived Learning | British Journal of Educational Technology

Virtual Field Trips as an Educational and Motivational Strategy to Teach Iowa History (pdf) | Dissertation University of Iowa

Handbook of Research on Mobile Technology, Constructivism, and Meaningful Learning (Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design) (book)

Integrating Virtual Reality Tools Into Classroom Instruction

5 Worthwhile Augmented and Virtual Reality Tools | Edutopia

Making Virtual Reality a Reality in Today’s Classrooms

Virtual Reality in Education: Benefits, Tools, and Resources

How to use Virtual Reality in Lessons | ResourcEd

10 Reasons To Use Virtual Reality In The Classroom | Teach Thought

Cybraryman’s Virtual Reality Page

Cybraryman’s Field Trips Page

Seeing Is Believing: Using Virtual and Augmented Reality to Enhance Student Learning | Gifted Child Today

School of Music Professors Unify to Create VR Conducting Program for Music Students | Illinois State University

Image courtesy of Pixabay Pixabay License

Photos courtesy of Ryan and Fallon McLaughlin.

Graphic courtesy of Lisa Conrad.

Critical Thinking in a Digital World

Critical thinking, as a concept, can be defined in terms of knowledge, analysis, comprehension, application, synthesis, and evaluation. It involves conceptualizing vast amounts of information, analyzing that information objectively, and applying our findings to solve problems. In today’s world, critical thinking requires us to possess time management skills, to be able to prioritize tasks, and to recognize disinformation.

In the past, emphasis was placed on learning content, memorizing content and presenting content. The need to do this no longer exists when content is at our fingertips and one search away. When considering the vast amount of content and data available, critical thinking is a must for today’s students. It is, for the time being, what separates us from machines. Much of the information available today can be classified as disinformation and propaganda. As such, critical thinking is a way to guard against being manipulated by those who disseminate it.

Due to the enormous amount of information available through technology (the Internet), a student’s ability to take in and assess that information to form their own opinion is much more important. The intrusion of technology into our social lives increases the need for critical thinking in ways that were not even conceived of in the past. Today, critical thinking must include not only the information we receive, but also its delivery method and source.

How do we build skills to support students’ quest for credible, relevant and useful information? Initially it was thought that simply teaching students the basics of information literacy would suffice. It has not. As access to information has increased, so has the need for guard rails and greater attention to critical thinking. Students need to recognize not only when information may seem fake; but understand the nature of ‘deep’ fakes (manipulation of audio and video) and realize that authenticating sources needs more than a quick background check. A complex skillset that includes a deep understanding of what is involved in critical thinking can ensure that the information they find is viable and trustworthy.

“Teaching students (and let’s be honest, the adults) how to recognize ads, bias in sources, reliability of the source, etc. is so important. With my undergrads, we talk about whether or not something passes the CRAAP test.” ~ Jennifer Marten, Ph.D. NBCT

How can educators teach critical thinking and information literacy that students find accessible and engaging? First, educators need to cultivate critical thinking for themselves and feel confident teaching it as well as information literacy. As students begin to research topics, explain the need to be cautious about the information they encounter and encourage them to be skeptical about the possibility the information may be fake. When students begin to exercise critical thinking, they should be reminded to consider there may be more than one answer to their question, that diligence will be rewarded, and flexibility may be needed.

How and why should teachers help students recognize misinformation and question their own beliefs? Social media has become an integral part of students’ lives. Social media companies rely on targeted content to enhance their business models creating information silos which divide society and isolate individuals. Students can be taught to question their own beliefs by reflecting on the information they receive, questioning it and considering alternatives; all by enhancing their critical thinking skills.

A transcript of this chat can be found at Wakelet.

Global #gtchat Powered by the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented is a weekly chat on Twitter. Join us Thursdays at 8E/7C/6M/5P in the U.S. and Fridays at Noon NZST/10AM AEST/1AM UK to discuss current topics in the gifted community and meet experts in the field. Transcripts of our weekly chats can be found at Wakelet. Our Facebook Page provides information on the chat and news and information regarding the gifted community. Also, checkout our Pinterest Page and Playlist on YouTube.